Research with chicken embryos and human stem cells, to understand more about conditions like spina bifida, has used 3D printed sensors to measure spinal cord malformations.
Birth malformations in the spinal cord affect one in every 2,000 newborns in Europe each year, leading to life-long issues with walking, breathing and chronic back pain.
A study from University College London, UK, and EARA member the University of Padua, Italy, has now used 3D printed sensors and powerful microscopes to measure the small mechanical forces that occur during chicken embryo spinal cord development.
Knowing the forces that happen, during spinal cord formation, will allow the testing of specific drugs – to help the positive forces and block the negative ones – which will allow normal development instead of malformation.
The technology was also applied to human stem cells, enabling future comparisons between healthy donors and patients with spina bifida.
This research was published in Nature Materials.